Building a bentside spinet

[Charlie Schultz]

Here the rack is in place (not glued yet) and I've installed the balance pins and put a small felt bushing on each pin. More felt is on the back "touch" rail. I think it serves two purposes- to adjust the touch/travel of the key and to provide a soft (quiet) landing site when the key is released. Next is to cut the keys apart!

[David King]

Cutting all those slots with a chisel is giving me chills just thinking about it. Such perseverance!

[Charlie Schultz]

@David, it actually went pretty quick. I spent much more time thinking about different ways to do it than actually just doing it the "traditional" way.

On to the keys. Mr. Barnes recommends a saw that makes a 1 mm kerf for cutting the key fronts and the back/tail ends can be cut with a bandsaw. The fretting saws that I have weren't quite deep enough to let me get to the corners. A small douzuki saw might have done the trick. So I went with a coping saw that cut a sub-mm kerf.

Here you can see the initial straight cuts.

Between the B and C and E and F keys, there are no sharp corners so you can cut straight through to split the keyboard into 5-6 sections that make it a little easier to work on.

I used a coping saw again to cut the right angles.

And all finally cut. They need some cleaning up and the cherry tops need to be popped off of the sharps and replaced with the final sharps (which still need to be made). Then slots and guides need to be cut and the holes need to be opened up, so still a good amount of work to do...

[Charlie Schultz]

The first pass of getting the keys eased and cleaned up.

[Bryan Bear]

This is going to be so cool!

[Beate Ritzert]

I am deeply impressed.

[Allan Wolfe]

Charlie. I truly appreciate the time you have taken to share your input and great photos. I'm looking at building the Barnes (Keene/Brackley) spinet the first of next year. Seeing how you have approached it will be a big help for me.

I see nothing has been posted since 2017. I'm curious as to what the remainder of your experience was like in your build, particularly in the installation of the jacks, setting the tail pins as well as beauty shots of your finished instrument (assuming it isn't still in progress !).

[Charlie Schultz]

Sad to say it is still in progress, hope to get back on it this fall sometime. I will be adding some photos then, stay tuned.

[Allan Wolfe]

I understand. I've had a bowed psaltery project going on for about 4 years. I'm about to continue on with it after having a drill guide jig milled for getting the tuning peg holes drilled parallel and at the correct angle.

[Bob Francis]

Okay Charlie it is October